The Sacramento Bee
At last, the website of Sacramento’s metro newspaper The Sacramento Bee has finally gotten a redesign. The old page was severely outdated with its red-dominating color scheme somehow detracted one’s attention from the overall ugly page layout.
The new design follows the now traditional white background look. A blue theme replaces the former red theme, allowing a more subtle color touch. AJAX is used for many of the sidebar features, but the website is still page heavy.
The homepage could use more pictures and photos. It’s a bit odd that the size of the main story (while smaller than the ridiculously large size the former site showcased) situated on the left is the same as the Latest/Most Viewed/Most Commented middle column next to it. It’s even a bit odder that the right column full of ads is the same size too. I see the need for symmetry and equality, but “main” news should always be more apparent.
A typical news page somewhat stays the same. The logo is a bit smaller, which looks odd when the “Our Region” title is so much larger in size. The normal ads are on the right. One gripe: the article title is situated a bit too high from the top and looks squished. We need space people!
I wish I could see the revamped Classifieds section but I can’t access it for some reason. The previous version was horrid.
BART
The premier mode of public transit in the San Francisco Bay Area received a new website design a few weeks ago. BART now looks hipper and more user-friendly. The giant photo on the homepage definitely captures the friendliness of both the website and the transportation system.
I love the color scheme. The blues and browns definitely work well. The layout is also more chic.
That’s really all I can say, other than the website never crashed on me, and I could plan out my trip via the scheduler with ease and grace.